Little Snoring Norfolk

Thou shalt not……

There was a time when the Ten Commandments were written at the East end of most churches and taught to children and Confirmation candidates. They were seen as integral to the vision of the Christian faith which was to guide us through life.

For good or ill, you rarely see the commandments written large on church walls now. I think it is to do with the way that people have found the picture of God too forbidding with all those Thou Shalt Nots, and that the emphasis on restrictions paints a one-sided view of faith. It is more fulfilling to be encouraged to live lovingly, to care for others, to forgive, to do to others as you would have them do to you.

We are currently being told very strongly by secular authorities that “Thou Shalt Not”. Given the seriousness of the situation it makes sense that we should stay at home and be wary of contact with others for a while. Intriguingly it is being met with a mixture of acceptance by most people, denial by a small group and seemingly an offhand lack of concern by quite a few people: It applies to others, but not to me. We don’t generally like being told what to do even when it is for our own good.

God’s way of being is a positive way, of outgoing, sacrificial love. Jesus came to do the will of the Father and, for example, gave the Beatitudes  at the Sermon on the Mount : “Blessed are……..”. We are loved! He does pass judgment on hypocritical, self-satisfied, uncaring people but he is clear that he is inviting them to follow the way of the Kingdom. Faith is not about fear or self-righteousness – it responds to God’s love and looks to the needs of others.

                                                            New York post 9/11

Seeing the high infection rate and the highest daily death toll thus far, there are clearly a lot of Shalts happening when, in Elizabethan English, they Shouldest Not. Today we took the decision to close All Saints again for the coming weeks, a very hard choice which goes against my instincts and preferences, but the risks are too high. Worship and love of God is about our deepest feelings and our ethical stance in life: perhaps we can see it as not so much “not meeting” as “caring and protecting” until we can feel safe in this world, even as we live in the way we are called by God as inheritors of joy and peace in the next.

A Virtual Mass Tour

  

Nancy Stewart, a 107-year-old woman from Clonard, County Meath is attempting a virtual Mass tour across Ireland while in lockdown.

She and her granddaughter, Louise Coghlan, have been shielding together since last March and have decided on this spiritual challenge!

There are 32 counties on the island and so many churches to join in virtually from the comfort of the kitchen.

Louise has tried to find different things with which to occupy her elderly grandmother and found that when she asks Nancy if she wants to watch Mass her "eyes light up like I'd just given her a million euros".

Apparently Nancy, whose favourite saint is St Anthony, often known as the patron saint of lost things, can hardly believe that she has found and can watch Mass on a computer or a phone from her comfy armchair on any day of the week.

"I feel so happy and so refreshed sitting happily in my own kitchen, in my armchair looking at Mass."

 

Canon Jo adds: It is amazing and marvellous that we can worship safely in our homes and that we have the technology to keep in touch and worship together by phone or on line. You don’t need to be a centenarian or have any other reason to use the internet for worship in seeking to keep yourself and others safe from the virus.

We all know it feels different, and for many of us it is similar to what must be Nancy’s biggest regret, as a devout Catholic, that she cannot literally share in the communion itself. Yet this can be a spiritual lifeline as we focus on all that Jesus has done for us, his willingness to sacrifice himself, his broken body and pierced side on the cross - the call to us to follow his way of love, knowing that He is always with us.

Do not be afraid for I am with you

(A prayer based on Isaiah 43:1-7)

The God who breathed this world alive
And sustains it day by day
Whose hands flung stars into space
And controls our destiny
Says, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”
The God who filled the ocean depths
And set tides on their way
Who caused mountains to be raised up
And rainbows to display
Says, “I have called you by name, you are mine.”
The God who made the fertile earth
And seed within to sow
Whose artistry creates butterflies
And the early morning dew
Says, “You are precious in my sight.”

Questions

 

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart,
and try to love the questions themselves
as if they were locked rooms
or books written in a very foreign language.

Do not search for the answers, which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually,
without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Epiphany on the Jordan

 

The heavens split and the water spilled
And streamed around that man like a quickening rain
The word behind all worlds revealed
That God in man makes everything new again

This word of God to His beloved
Has settled on me like a dove

He calls us too, to step into that river
To die and rise to life and love forever
So graciously extends to me a sinner
To tread the sacred waters of, the mystery of love

What can be said about a mystery
Except to say that the last word can never be said

Best leave that to poetry
Kindling words for quickening the dead
The living dead
Pure single heart behind all things
Each, to the other, by the Spirit sings

He calls us too, to step into that river
To die and rise to life and love forever
So graciously extends to me a sinner
To tread the sacred waters of, the mystery of love

Steve Bell 

Democracy under threat: Qanon

This was posted previously last September but seems very relevant since many of the people who were involved in the Capitol riot were members of Qanon. It is deeply disturbing to see people undermining democracy, encouraged by a person who should be encouraging peace and freedom.

The final paragraph of the blog seems to have become all too true......

I was very sorry to hear that some people I know have joined a new American cult. It seems to have around 50,000 followers in the United States and they appear to be fundamentalist Christians who support President Trump. Sadly, as far as I am concerned, this is not unusual in itself, but this group goes further. They see Trump as God’s chosen leader, deriving this mainly from the book of Revelation.

Revelation is a challenging book, written when Christians were hunted and killed by the Roman empire and when many Christians believed that the return of Christ was imminent. It has glorious language about the ultimate triumph of God and his people, the glorious songs of heaven, the hope of the end of pain and mortality. There is also a lot of apocalyptic imagery which relates back to the book of Daniel and other writings, and which we cannot decipher with any certainty. And that is the problem, that people down the centuries have claimed to know just what it means, especially incorrectly predicting the end of the world.

The cult leaders, whoever they are, have taken Revelation as referring to Donald Trump. The various passages relate to his supposed achievements and he is predicted as the One who will bring peace and stability of all mankind. The historical Jesus is hardly mentioned in their book, which is not surprising – although they clearly know their way around the Scriptures.

The book which I examined is very clever, it is designed to encourage Christian-type people to support Trump as a leader chosen by God and sees evil in many other prominent people such as Bill Gates. But even more worryingly it suggests that followers cut themselves off from communication with much of the outside world as well as preparing for a future violent confrontation. To say that it is saddening in respect to people I once knew, as they are being severely misled, is one thing – to abuse the Bible and through it to lead others to regard Donald Trump as a quasi-divine saviour figure is something else, something deeply disturbing.

 

Heavenly Father, amid the communications revolution there are so many ideas given publicity and which may seem compelling. Help us to perceive what is good and true, what serves your purposes of love and hope. Be with people who are confused by the many conflicting voices in our world, and forgive and restore those who are twisting the Christian faith for political ends. Grant wisdom to the people of the United States as they experience a change of political leadership, and lead all our nations into the ways of justice and peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Spinning out of control?

 

I gather that the earth is spinning faster than before. It’s spin of c.1000mph at the equator has increased. Scientists are considering whether to adjust our clocks by one second. Of course, none of us notices the world spinning, nor our annual journey round the sun, although both have an effect on us.

My head is spinning though, with the massive increases in viral infections and fatalities. Over 1000 deaths in our land in one 24-hour period. The amount of pain and suffering has increased massively in the last ten months and the heightened need for intensive care beds and staff, plus the urgency of the vaccine rollout in the face of a mutating virus can put one on edge.

Faith in God can be a source of stability in our ever-changing world. I know, too, that faith can feel challenged by shocking developments in our lives and in our wider circumstances. When events alarm us, how we need to feel that we are still held within that eternal love which Jesus came to bring to us. His coming among us is light in the darkness, and we are assured that the darkness has not overcome it.

This is the Christmas message and now the season of Epiphany speaks powerfully of that glorious light being shown to the world. The light, of course, is about the thoughts and ideas within our minds, about our basic trust, our way of life, our hope of eternity. There can be a great deal of darkness entering our thoughts with the worldwide pandemic and all the other things which can cause us to wonder what is going on. We have a choice to embrace and live in the light or to let the darkness overcome us. Our faith in God affirms that he has sent his Son, Jesus, to bring life and hope to us all.

I love the canticle called the Benedictus, which speaks of Zechariah’s wonder that God was sending the Saviour. Spiritually, it sets my mind spinning in wonder – in the opposite direction to the other stuff…..

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who has come to his people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour, born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets God promised of old to save us from our enemies, from the hands of all that hate us,

To show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies,

Free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,

To give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of all their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,  

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Luke 1.68–79